Field of the Embodiments of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to human-device interfaces and, more specifically, to wireless control of linked devices.
Description of the Related Art
A modern computing device may expose a wide range of different types of interfaces to a user. For example, a conventional laptop computer typically includes a keyboard and mouse for interacting with an operating system (OS) and/or various software applications that execute on the laptop. Similarly, a conventional smartphone oftentimes includes a touchscreen for interacting with an OS and various applications that execute on the smartphone. Regardless of the type of interface implemented by a device, a user of the device must learn how to interact with the device interface in order to operate that device. Given the plethora of devices with which a typical person interacts on a daily basis, a significant amount of learning is normally required.
To simplify the required learning, many devices implement voice control functionality in an attempt to provide a more intuitive and natural interface for device control. With voice control functionality, a user of a given device verbalizes a command in order to cause the device to perform an associated operation. Although the voice control approach may simplify the operation of a single device, that approach may actually complicate device usage when implemented across many different devices.
Specifically, different types of devices that implement voice control oftentimes expose different command languages for interacting with those devices. Consequently, a user who interacts with a number of different voice-enabled devices is required to remember an equivalent number of different sets of commands. Complicating usability further, identical operations across two or more devices may be associated with slightly different spoken commands. For example, a first device may prepare an email when the user says “compose email,” while a second device may prepare an email when the user says “write email.” These subtle distinctions may confuse the user and reduce the usefulness of voice control functionality.
As the foregoing illustrates, voice control functionality is meant to simplify the operation of devices. However, since different devices implement voice control differently, i.e. via different sets of spoken commands, voice control may actually reduce the usability of devices. In situations where a user interacts with many different devices, the user may not remember all of the unique sets of commands required to interact with all of those different devices. As such, usability of those devices may be limited.